No Justification For Negev Terror, But Injustice And Drunkeness Bring The Sword
“The sword comes to the world for the delay of judgment, and for the perversion of judgment, and because of those who teach Torah improperly.” Pirkei Avot 5:8
REMEMBER WHAT [AMALEK] DID UNTO YOU (Deuteronomy 25:17) Rashi: If you use false weights and measures then you must beware that you are inviting the enemy, as it states (Proverbs 11:1): “A false balance is an abomination to Adonai etc.”, and there is written immediately after this (v. 2): “If intentional sin comes, shame comes.”(Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Teitzei 8)
Rabbi Yonatan ben Shaul says: If a pursuer was pursuing another to kill him, and one was able to save the pursued party without killing the pursuer (Literally, save the pursuer from himself by preventing him/her from committing murder. If there is no other option, one must kill him), but instead by injuring him in one of his limbs, but he did not save him in this manner and rather chose to kill him, he is executed on his account as a murderer. (Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 74a)
And Adonai spoke to Aaron, saying: Drink no wine or other intoxicant, you or your sons, when you enter the Tent of Meeting, that you may not die. This is a law for all time throughout the ages, for you must distinguish between the sacred and the profane, and between the unclean and the clean; and you must teach the Israelites all the laws that Adonai has imparted to them through Moses.” (This week’s Torah portion: Leviticus 10:8-11)
AND THERE WENT OUT FIRE (Leviticus 10:2) – Rashi: Rabbi Eliezer said: the sons of Aaron died only because they gave decisions on religious matters in the presence of their teacher, Moses (Sifra, Shemini, Mechilta d’Miluim 2 32; Eruvin 63a). Rabbi Ishmael said: they died because they entered the Sanctuary intoxicated by wine. You may know that this is so, because after their death he admonished those who survived that they should not enter when intoxicated by wine. (vv. 8—9)
In this video, the “unrecognized” village of Al Araqib was demolished on Wednesday for the 199th time. Al Araqib existed before the State of Israel, but their lands were expropriated in 1953. If their lands were not theirs, expropriation would not have been necessary. Although the State tried to deny them legal recourse until the High Court intervened, they are now in District Court attempting to prove their ownership claims and contesting the expropriation. That hasn’t stopped the State from abusing the law to drive them off their lands before the court rules, and then perhaps to declare the case mute. Possession is nine tenths of the law. In short, the might of Israel has been harnessed to dispossessing the residents of Al Araqib.
Later on Wednesday we were all traumatized and horrified by the murderous rampage in Beersheva. I of course expressed condolences to those murdered in Beersheva, and wished a speedy recovery to the injured. Murder and lesser forms of violence are not to be condoned or excused, with the exception of the minimum necessary force required for self-defense or defending others from violence – see Sanhedrin above. This is obviously true when we in no way accept expressed grievances used to justify violence, as I in no way accept the justifications of many settlers. This is true when there might be some truth to grievances. The current Russian claims are mostly lies, sprinkled with a few grievances that I don’t entirely reject. They in no way justify their murderous war against Ukraine. It is true even when we agree with some or all of the grievances of those who choose to employ violence, as I agree with the grievances of Israel’s Negev Bedouin citizens.
Now the hard part. As easy as it is to claim that talking about how the sword comes to the world is equivalent to excusing the sword, the truth must be told. I am also outraged by the many pundits either intentionally distorting or blindly misunderstanding what it takes to banish the sword from the world. Our Talmudic sages didn’t condone the sword, and Rashi didn’t endorse Amalek. However, they understood reality. So must we. Injustice and discrimination bring the sword into the world, and open the door to Amalek. Since the terror attack, we have been hearing even more than usual from those who oppress, steal and dispossess Israel’s Bedouin citizens, and then express self-righteous anger absolving themselves of any responsibility.
Others are not intentionally seeking to embitter the lives of Israel’s Bedouin citizens, but are not understanding reality. In this week’s Torah portion, various commentators tried to come up with explanations of what was the crime of Nadav and Avihu that led to God’s Fire consuming them. Many connect between the tragedy and God’s subsequent command to Aaron quoted above not to serve while intoxicated. While some midrashim ascribe many negative character traits to Nadav and Avihu, they may have made deadly misjudgments because they were under the influence. God doesn’t only forbid the use of alcohol in ritual matters, but in teaching the law. In Pirkei Avot we are taught that both the improper teaching and improper use of the law bring the sword into the world.
“Governability” has become a code for stealing and oppressing and dispossessing in the name of the law. Yesterday I heard politicians and pundits arguing that heard politic that Wednesday’s terror attack occurred because we “gave in to violence” and stopped the KKL-JNF tree planting in February, and that was but one example of how we have given up on asserting the rule of law over the Bedouin. I will mention, but not go into detail about the reports that the amount of Bedouin violence around the planting was exaggerated and that there was a great deal of police violence. I wasn’t there, no violence is acceptable, and I don’t want to be seen as condoning or excusing. However, it is important to understand that the Bedouin believe with good cause that the trees were being planted on lands that once the pre–State Zionist movement recognized as theirs.I believe they are right. Yes, it is true that the State today doesn’t recognize their ownership. However, at least we should recognize that this isn’t a struggle between law and lawlessness, but over what is just law. If enforcing the law means prosecuting Bedouin, right wing provocateurs or police who act violently, I am in agreement. If it means demolishing homes in unjustly unrecognized villages that had no chance of building legally, or planting trees or building Jewish communities on lands where we once honored Bedouin ownership, that is intentionally or drunkenly bringing the sword into the world, as wrong as the sword may be.
There are those who will say that I am naïve or condoning violence, or both. Who is naïve? Do the pundits and the politicians really think that injustice and raw power are going to stop violence? How much power would it take? Even if it is true that some may have learned that they were able to achieve their goals through the use of violence. It is twisting reality to maintain that those who tried to calm things down by stopping injustice are the ones who caused the subsequent violence. If the State of Israel had been acting justly and fairly with its Bedouin citizens, it is much less likely that there would have been the violence that some believe was rewarded.
In terms of what is intentionally misleading or naïve, what does a Bedouin soldier think when he comes home to find his home demolished because he lives in an “unrecognized village” that existed before the State or where the State put his family, but where there is no chance of building legally? What are the Bedouin to think when new Jewish communities are created in the Negev, but their villages remain “unrecognized?” And how do they feel when the “Khevra L’Haksharat HaYishuv” of the pre State Zionist movement listed 2,600,000 dunam as belonging to the Bedouin in the Negev, but the State now says they own nothing? Today are willing to throw them a bone, and grant them some lands, while others don’t even want to do that. These oppressive policies are first and foremost plain wrong. Secondly, they bring about the sword that eventually endangers us as well.
It is time that we cease to steal lands, make it almost impossible to build legally, eliminate “unrecognized” villages in order to concentrate Israeli Bedouin citizens in townships. We must not oppress and dispossess. Of course we must bring the full weight of the law against those who have acted violently. However, not through collective punishment. And, we must learn from our sages that the best way to fight violence is often by applying the law clearheadedly and justly.
Shabbat Shalom
